Verizon's XLTE move follows a similar effort launched last year by Sprint, which launched "Spark" in October of last year.

"That announcement was nothing more than a way for Sprint to brand its devices' ability to work between three bands — one from the defunct Nextel network and two others from its Clearwire acquisition," CNet wrote.

XLTE is comprised of an effort to bring spectrum purchased from cable providers in 2012 onto the Verizon network. Verizon has been upgrading cell towers with new antennas and base-station equipment since mid-2013 as part of this effort.

According to The New York Times, Verizon XLTE is available in nearly 300 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, Houston, and Dallas, and works across approximately 100 devices, including the iPhone 5S and 5C, Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and S5, and Motorola’s Moto X.

"We definitely had a short-term blip in high-traffic areas in Manhattan, driven by the popularity of our service and density of the market," said Verizon's Nicki Palmer, a chief technology officer. "We quickly overcame that by the end of the year with some really nice work."

Along with the announcement about XLTE, Verizon also released a new TV commercial for the service.